George Trakas
George Trakas is a sculptor who was born in Quebec City in 1944 and has lived in New York City since 1963. Many of his projects are site-specific installations, and he describes himself as an environmental sculptor. He often recycles local materials and incorporates them into his work.
Notable recent examples of his work include a waterfront nature walk at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn, New York; another waterfront installation adjacent to the museum in Beacon, New York; and public art in the New York City Subway at the Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center station.
Trakas taught sculpture at Yale University for 13 years and has also taught at other schools. He graduated from Sir George Williams University in Montreal and then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in art history at New York University in 1969. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1982, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1989, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Medal for Sculpture in 1996. Emory University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2011. He also won the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists award.
George Trakas married Susan Rothenberg, a painter, in 1971. Their daughter Maggie was born in 1972. They divorced in 1979 but remained close until Rothenberg's death in 2020.
List of works
The following table contains a partial list of works by George Trakas.| Title | Location | Description | Year | References |
| Pont Épée | Thiers, France | Set of walkways and bridges on the Durolle river next to the "Creux-de-l'enfer" | 1985 | |
| Beacon Point | Beacon, New York | Angling deck, boardwalk, & restored bulkhead in Long Dock Park on a 25-acre peninsula adjacent to museum | 2007 | |
| The pathway of love | A path made of iron and wood that crosses a romantic forest alongside a stream | 1982 | ||
| Shoreline Nature Walkway | Brooklyn, New York | Nature walk adjacent to the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant | 2007 | |
| Hook, Line, and Sinker | Brooklyn, New York | Public sculpture inside the Atlantic Avenue – Barclays Center station | 2004 | |
| Reconnections | Belmullet, Ireland | Footbridge across a canal in County Mayo. On the North Mayo Sculpture Trail. | 1993 | |
| Self Passage | Humlebæk, Denmark | Site-specific sculpture leading to a waterside platform, in the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art's sculpture park. | 1989 | |
| Berth Haven | Seattle, Washington | A cedar and steel lakeside deck on the premises of an NOAA facility. Rests on foundations remaining from the site’s prior use as navy airfield. | 1983 | |
| Route Source | Atlanta, Georgia | Site-specific sculpture in a wooded area of the Emory University campus | 1979 |